Research details
Application ID 581215-2022
Competition year 2022
Fiscal year 2023-2024
Project lead name Tung, James JY
Institution University of Waterloo
Department Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics
Province Ontario
Award amount CA$22,333
Installment 1 - 1
Program Alliance Grants
Selection committee RPP Internal Decision Cttee
Research subject Systems, man and cybernetics
Area of application Human health (including medically-related psychological research)
Co-researchers No co-researchers
Award summary
Neurological impairments, including spinal cord injury (SCI), stroke, amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or cerebral palsy (CP) often lead to dependency on a motor assistive device such as an electric powered wheelchair (EPW) for personal mobility. Where loss of motor function severely impacts the body, such as quadriplegia, the lack of ability to manually control the device using standard control (e.g., joystick) greatly diminishes the benefit an EPW for independent mobility. A brain-computer-interface (BCI) system, which utilizes brain signals, can bypass standard controls to interface with devices, such as an EPW. The partner organization, Cognixion Inc., has invested significant time connecting the target user population and designing assistive technologies to date. Building on this knowledge, the partner has developed the Cognixion ONE device integrating augmented reality (AR) & electroencephalograpy (EEG) hardware to leverage BCI modalities and emerging AR technologies. Currently in testing, the company expects to publicly launch the device in 2024. The goal of this partnership and project will be to advance EPW control by integrating a state-of-the-art BCI control solution (Cognixion ONE), and analyze factors contributing to its effectiveness.The scope of the proposed project is to design, implement, and test develop an EPW BCI system. Analysis of factors influencing performance will characterize accuracy, latency, training time, and effects of cognitive fatigue. Furthermore, the capacity to switch between BCI applications (i.e., EPW control to communication, then back to EPW control) will be investigated to assess utility for multiple tasks. This investigation will aim to help bridge the gap between laboratory studies and utilizing a BCI as a medical assistive device in real-world conditions.